The Big Hurt: Dialing up Billboard’s Ringtones Chart We may scoff at the very idea of Billboard ’s ignominious Ringtones chart, but mobile phones are one of only three viable revenue channels musicians have left these days (the other two being commercial licensing and crooked charities).

Annie | Don't Stop Things have gotten pretty crowded in the electro-pop demi-monde since Annie released her indie-hit debut, Anniemal , back in 2004.

Lissie | Catching a Tiger Anyone who walked the grounds at the Newport Folk Festival a few weeks back knows that the modern-folk music tag cuts a pretty broad swath.

Going Gaga for gay rights Maine became a gay-rights battleground again this week, complete with junior-high-style political maneuvering and pop-culture madness.

PHX @ SXSW! Don't be so shocked if the coming week brings with it not just a stretch of balmier weather but also a palpable decrease in the douche point. That's because the vast majority of the music industry has up and JetBlued 2000 miles south to Austin for SXSW (a/k/a South by Southwest).